Go to Veracity Stew - another progressive
Podcast and a Must Listen (warning: contains occasional adult language and
sensitive material-NSFW):

Question: "Separation
between Church and State." Who coined the Phrase? Give up?
Answer: Thomas Jefferson - one of the founding fathers of this
great Nation and a creator of the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment
to that same Constitution. Thomas Jefferson, in 1802, wrote a Letter
to the Danbury Baptist Association, referring to the First Amendment to the
US Constitution. In it he said:

"To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim
Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist
association in the state of Connecticut.

"Gentlemen

"The affectionate sentiments of esteem
and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on
behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest
satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the
interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of
my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more
pleasing.

"Believing with you that religion is a
matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to
none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of
government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with
sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared
that their legislature should "make no law
respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church &
State. Adhering to this expression of the
supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I
shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments
which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no
natural right in opposition to his social duties.

"I reciprocate your kind prayers for the
protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and
tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my
high respect & esteem."

Th Jefferson

Jan 1, 1802

From the U.S. Library of Congress

We will leave it up to the
reader to determine whether
Senator Bunning has made serious errors in in
judgment.
He has supported a Conservative Far Right
Christian position especially when it comes to Church and State issues.
It is apparent from the data collected, that the first amendment may be in
danger from his past and future actions as well as other constitutional
sections. He has supported deregulation of banks and the SEC causing
the current economic Depression.

Senator Bunning's office stated that his position
is that Certain Religions aren't "Real" religions. What is
a real religion, Mr.
Bunning? What you have been practicing?
He says on the one hand that only certain Christian denominations are valid.
Nut you are supporting Rape by the Defense Contractors. Read
the following and remember: "By their Works may they be known." This
is a summary of information collected from several sources about
Senator Brownback.Senator Bunning.

(Remember it is best to
investigate on your own when looking at allegations about anyone.
Don't believe us, think for yourself and investigate for yourself! And
remember, the First Amendment Coalition and Religious Freedom Coalition of
the South East do not represent any political party nor do we recommend any
political candidate, nor are we involving ourselves in the political
process.)

Below are excerpts from
Senator Bunning's webpage,
his bio on wikipedia.org, articles on huffingtonpost.com, and articles
on politico.com

EXTREMIST (TEA PARTY)
REPUBLICANS ARE THE ENEMY AND TRAITORS TO AMERICA by R. Blackbird

Extremist (Tea Party) Republicans are selfish, power hungry,
hateful of the poor, disloyal to the nation and its people, dishonest,
avaricious, scornful of the nation's history, the dignity of its institutions,
its standards of political morality, and its vision of advancement for all
the people. The Republicans love war as long as they and theirs do not have
to put on helmets and carry guns into the fighting. They use lies to start
wars that kill hundreds of thousands of innocents and thousands of our own
military service people. They love massive war-time profits, unavailable to
their rich masters if war is absent.

Those Extremist Republicans
hate the rest of us, which they must, in order to pass away from themselves
and onto us, the financial burdens and losses their crimes, schemes and
thefts cause. They are prolific, incessant, and destructive liars. They are
blasphemers for they insist that their hateful and destructive deeds are the
work of God. They are apostates for they gleefully attack the poor, the
immigrants, the old and the sick, of whom God has commanded all of us to be
mindful.

There is no reasoning with them, for all their logic is built on
false premises. There is no appealing to them for honor's sake for they have
lost all sense of shame and have no honor, there is no appealing to them for
the nation's sake for that it what they hate the most.

Extremist (Tea Party) Republicans are the enemy.

DOES SENATOR BUNNING SUPPORT
RAPE?

I think that all homo sapiens can understand
how the mere thought of an organization that receives government
money through contract mechanisms being tangentially involved in
setting up a fake tax shelter for a fake pimp and his fake
prostitution ring of fake prostitutes can justifiably lead to
lawmakers

going absolutely cross-eyed with
white-hot, impotent rage. But what happens when a similarly
taxpayer-endowed contractor attempts to cover up
employee-on-employee gang rape
by locking up the victim in a shipping container without food
and water and threatening her with reprisals if she report the
incident? Somehow, it doesn't engender the same level of anger!

30 misogynist Republicans in the
U.S. Senate are totally OK with rape, at least where women are
concerned. Predictably in yet another routine attempt to serve
their corporate masters, (this time the GOP stood by
Halliburton) Republicans voted against women and for corporate
contempt of rape victims.

Some Republican senators
are taking heat for voting against an amendment that would
allow employees of military contractors to sue their
employers if they are raped at work -- and they want the
Democratic senator who wrote the amendment to help them
fight off the bad publicity.

In
October, 30 Republicans voted against Sen. Al Franken's
amendment to a defense appropriations bill that would
de-fund contractors who prevent their employees from suing
if they are raped by co-workers. Since then, those
Republicans have faced outrage for what critics say amounts
to support for rape.

Instead of
standing up to take responsibility for or clarifying their
disgraceful votes, Republican cowards are instead attacking Al
Franken, blaming him for their votes.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX)
accused Franken exploiting the story of Jamie Leigh Jones --
a former KBR employee who says she was locked in a container
in Iraq after alleging she was raped by co-workers -- to
further his political agenda.

"Trying to tap
into the natural sympathy that we have for this victim of this
rape --and use that as a justification to frankly misrepresent
and embarrass his colleagues, I don't think it's a very
constructive thing," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said in an
interview.

I guess
Franken held a sledge hammer over Cornyn's head and said if he
did not vote against the anti-rape amendment Franken would crack
it over his head.

What shameless
cowards.

To summarize the Republican
position: As women, we are not "average Americans," and gang
rape is not a "serious" issue. As women, no matter how powerful
we become on our own merits, the Republican establishment will
still be hoping for a man to come along and put us in our place.

Not every
Republican signs onto these views -- indeed, 10 Senate
Republicans voted for the Franken amendment, giving the lie to
the NRSC's claim of partisanship -- but this is the undercurrent
of the party's policies. This is what they're hoping to get
voters to overlook when they run a Sarah Palin or a Kelly Ayotte
for office. This is why Bob McDonnell's campaign for Virginia
governor has been such a popular campaign stop for 2012
prospects: because of, not despite, his opposition to marital
contraception and women in the workplace. This is why David
Vitter (who voted against the Franken amendment) is still a
senator in good standing with the party of alleged sexual
morality.

You don't have
to go very far beneath the Republican surface claims of
equality-but-not-really to get to the rock-bottom sense that
women just don't count, that our rights and our wellbeing are
always subordinate to whatever interest of men they might
conflict with. When it comes to it, even the (themselves sexist)
notions of chivalry and protecting women come behind protecting
the right of corporations to imprison their female employees to
shield their male employees from rape charges and still get
government contracts.

Credit
new Senator Al Franken however, for

introducing an amendment to the
Defense Appropriations bill that would punish contractors if they
"restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery
and discrimination cases to court." You'd think that this would be a
no-brainer, actually, but that didn't stop Jeff Sessions from labeling
Franken's effort a "political attack directed at Halliburton." Franken,
of course, pointed out that his amendment would apply broadly, to all
contractors, because otherwise, 'twould be a bill of attainder, right?
Right?

Franken's
amendment ended up passing, 68-30. Here's a list of the Senators
who showed broad support for
Rapists and Pedophiles by voting against it:
(Click on their names to find out more about them).

In 1952, Bunning married
Mary Catherine Theis. They had five daughters and four sons.

Political career

Bunning is one of
the Senate's most conservative members, gaining high marks from several
conservative interest groups. He was ranked by National Journal
as the second-most conservative United States Senator in their March 2007
conservative/liberal rankings, after Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC)[5].

Local and state positions

First elected to
office in 1977, Bunning served two years on the city council of Fort Thomas, Kentucky
before running for and winning a seat in the Kentucky Senate as a
Republican. He was elected minority leader by his Republican colleagues, a
rare feat for a freshman legislator.

House of Representatives

In 1986, Bunning won
the Republican nomination in Kentucky's 4th District, based in Kentucky's
share of the Cincinnati metro area,
after 10-term incumbent RepublicanGene Snyder retired.
He won easily in the fall and was reelected five more times without serious
opposition in what was considered the most Republican district in Kentucky.
After the Republicans gained control of the House in 1995, Bunning served as
chairman of the House Ways and Means
Subcommittee on Social Security until 1999.

First Senate term

In 1998, Senate Minority WhipWendell Ford decided
to retire after 24 years in the Senate—the longest term in Kentucky history.
Bunning won the Republican nomination for the seat, and faced fellow
Congressman Scotty Baesler, a
Democrat from the Lexington-based 6th
District, in the general election. Bunning defeated Baesler by just over
half a percentage point. The race was very close; Bunning only won by
swamping Baesler in the 4th by a margin that Baesler couldn't make up in the
rest of the state (Baesler barely won the 6th).

In a quote from
Pulitzer-prize winner Taylor Branch's book of interviews with former
President Bill Clinton, David Corn, of Mother Jones magazine characterizes
Clinton's opinion of Bunning as:

In describing an
interview with Bill Clinton after the 1998 Senate elections,
Taylor Branch wrote of Clinton, "He said Bunning, a former baseball player,
was so mean-spirited that he repulsed even his fellow know-nothings. 'I
tried to work with him a couple times,' said Clinton, 'and he just sent
shivers up my spine....I know you're a baseball fan and everything, and you
don't like to hear it, but this guy is beyond the pale.'"

2004 Senate race

Bunning was heavily
favored for a second term in 2004 after his expected Democratic opponent,
Governor Paul Patton, saw his
career implode in a scandal over an extramarital affair, and the Democrats
chose Daniel Mongiardo, a
relatively unknown physician and state senator from Hazard. Bunning had
an estimated $4 million campaign war chest, while Mongiardo had only
$600,000. However, due to a number of controversial incidents involving
Bunning, the Democrats
began increasing financial support to Mongiardo when it became apparent that
Bunning's bizarre behavior was costing him votes, purchasing more than
$800,000 worth of additional television airtime on his behalf.

During his reelection bid,
controversy erupted when Bunning described Mongiardo as looking "like one of Saddam Hussein's
sons." Public pressure compelled him to apologize. Bunning was also
criticized for his use of a teleprompter during a
televised debate with Mongiardo
where Bunning participated via satellite link, refusing to appear in person.
Bunning was further criticized for making an unsubstantiated claim that his
wife had been attacked by Mongiardo's supporters, and for calling Mongiardo
"limp wristed". Bunning's mental health was also questioned during the
campaign.

In October, 2004 Bunning
told reporters "Let me explain something: I don't watch the national news,
and I don't read the paper. I haven't done that for the last six weeks. I
watch Fox News to get my information."

The race turned out to be
very close, with Mongiardo leading with as many as 80% of the returns coming
in. However, Bunning eventually won by just over one percentage point. Some
analysts felt that had it not been for George W. Bush's
20% victory in the state, Mongiardo would have won.

Second Senate term, 2005–2011

As was expected in light
of Bunning's previous career as a baseball player, he has been very
interested in Congress's investigation of steroid use in baseball. Bunning
has also been outspoken on the issue of illegal immigration
taking the position that all illegal immigrants should be deported.

In April 2006, Time magazine
called him one of America's Five Worst Senators. The magazine dubbed him
The Underperformer for his "lackluster performance", saying he "shows
little interest in policy unless it involves baseball", and criticized his
hostility towards staff and fellow Senators and his "bizarre behavior"
during his 2004 campaign.

On December 6, 2006, only
Bunning and
Rick Santorum voted
against the confirmation of Robert Gates as
Secretary of Defense,
with Bunning saying that "Mr. Gates has repeatedly criticized our efforts in
Iraq and Afghanistan without providing any viable solutions to the problems
our troops currently face. We need a secretary of defense to think forward
with solutions and not backward on history we cannot change."

Jim Bunning reportedly has
blocked
the move to restore public access to the records of past United States
Presidents which had been removed under Executive Order 13233.

A statewide opinion poll
said Bunning had a 35% approval rating, with 55% disapproving as of
September 2009.

In January 2009, Bunning
missed more than a week of the start of Congress in January 2009. Bunning
said by phone that he was fulfilling "a family commitment six months ago to
do certain things, and I'm doing them." Asked whether he would say where he
was, Bunning replied: "No, I'd rather not."

In February 2009, at the Hardin County
Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, while discussing conservative judges,
Bunning predicted that Supreme Court JusticeRuth Bader Ginsburg
would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer
within nine months. Bunning later apologized if he had offended Ginsburg
with his remarks and offered his thoughts and prayers to Ginsburg; his press
release misspelled the Justice's last name twice.

Bunning was the only
senator to miss the Senate’s historic Christmas Eve 2009 vote on the health
care reform bill. The missed vote was one of 21 in the month of December —
nearly half of all Senate floor votes — that the senator skipped. Bunning’s
total of 21 missed December votes is one more than the 20 missed by
92-year-old Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who is ailing and in a wheelchair.

Ended 2010 re-election campaign

In January 2009,
when asked whether Bunning was the best candidate to run or whether there
were better GOP candidates for Bunning's Senate seat, National Republican
Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn said: "I
don’t know. I think it’s really up to Senator Bunning." Bunning replied:
"Anybody can run for anything they choose. I am gearing up, and I look
forward to the challenge of taking on whoever comes out of the Democrat
primary in May of 2010." Kentucky State Senate
President David Williams was
reportedly considering running against Bunning in the primary. Bunning
responded by threatening to sue the National Republican Senatorial Committee
if they recruited a candidate to run against him in the primary. He also
attacked NRSC Chairman John Cornyn:

"The NRSC never helped
me last time and they’re probably not going to help me this
time...[David Williams] owes me $30,000 and he said he’ll repay me. I
was short in my FEC money and he asked me if I would help save two state
senate seats… I told him if I did it I would have to have it replaced at
the first of the year. So far he has not."

As of the end of September
2008, Bunning had $175,000 in his campaign account. By comparison, all other
Republican senators facing competitive 2010 races had at least $850,000 at
that point. In the last quarter of 2008, Citizens for Bunning,
as the senator's campaign committee is known, raised $27,000 from 26
separate contributions, ending the year with $150,000 in cash. In mid-April, KYWORDSMITH.com reported that of the
$263,000 that Bunning collected during the first quarter of 2009, over 77%
($203,383) was received from out of state, while over 10% ($28,100) was
actually untouchable for another 13 months as it was contributed exclusively
for use in a general election. Bunning had two fund raisers scheduled in the
first half of April.

In an April 2009
poll, Bunning’s approval rating was just 28%, and he trailed the four most
likely Democratic candidates in hypothetical contests. 54% of voters in the
state disapproved of Bunning’s performance.Kentucky
Secretary of StateTrey Grayson
announced on April 30, 2009, that he would form an exploratory committee to
run for Bunning’s seat. It was speculated that this was a precursor to
Bunning's retirement. “He (Bunning) told Trey to do this,” one senior
congressional official said of Bunning. “Why else would he tell his main
rival to prepare for a run?” However, Bunning said at a Lincoln Day dinner
in Kentucky on 9 May that he still planned to run: "The battle is going to
be long, but I am prepared to fight for my values."

In a press
conference on May 19, Bunning called Senate Minority LeaderMitch McConnell a
"control freak": "If Mitch McConnell doesn’t endorse me, it could be the
best thing that ever happened to me in Kentucky."

On July 27, 2009, Bunning
announced he would not run for re-election in 2010, blaming fellow
Republicans for doing "everything in their power to dry up my fundraising."

Jim Bunning Foundation

On December 18, 2008, the
Lexington Herald Leader reported that Sen. Bunning's non-profit
foundation, the Jim Bunning Foundation, has given less than 25 percent of
its proceeds to charity. The charity has taken in $504,000 since 1996,
according to Senate and tax records; during that period, Senator Bunning was
paid $180,000 in salary by the foundation while working a reported one hour
per week. Bunning Foundation board members include his wife Mary, and
Cincinnati tire dealer Bob Sumerel. In 2008, records indicate that Bunning
attended 10 baseballshows around the country and signed autographs, generating $61,631 in
income for the charity."The whole thing is very troubling," said Melanie
Slone, Executive Director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington.

If congress fails
to pass an extension, the National Employment Law Project estimates that 1.2
million people will lose their benefits in March. Bunning's action could
cause thousands of people to miss their unemployment checks starting this
week, though it's likely that Congress will pass an extension within the
next two weeks that will retroactively cover their losses.

The bill under
consideration would provide a stop-gap 30 day extension for several other
expiring laws, including funding for highway projects that employed 2,000 people until Monday,
improved Medicare reimbursement rates (known as "doc fix"), flood insurance,
and licensing that allows satellite TV providers to carry local channels in
rural areas where they are unavailable with an antenna.

Reid asked for unanimous
consent to move forward with the bill on Monday.

"Six times last week,
Democrats asked to extend their unemployment benefits for a short time while
they work on a longer extension," Reid said. "Six times, Republicans said
no. They didn't just say no to us, that is members of the Senate. They said
no to their families in their own states and all our states count on us to
act when we need action. They count on us to respond in the event of an
emergency. This is an emergency. The Republicans in the Senate are standing
between these families and the help they need while these benefits expire
and expired."

After Reid spoke, Bunning
raised his objection and blamed the Democrats for failing to extend benefits
with an earlier bill that Reid scrapped. He repeated his insistence that the
Senate not add an additional $10 billion to the deficit.

"Just a brief explanation
of why we are where we're at with this extension bill, the brief extension
of 30 days," said Bunning, who is not running for reelection and apparently
not acting with the blessing of GOP leadership. "There was an agreement
between the majority leader of the Finance Committee and the minority leader
in the Finance Committee, Sens. Baucus and Grassley, on a three-month
extension of these very same provisions. There were more provisions in the
bill also. It cost a little more than the the $10 billion that is asked for
because it was a three-month extension. Senator Reid pulled that bill from
the floor of the U.S. Senate. He did it. The leader of the Democrats pulled
that bill from the floor. I support extending unemployment benefits, COBRA
benefits, flood insurance, highway bill fix, doc fix, small business loans,
distant network television for satellite viewers. If we can't find $10
billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for
anything on the floor of this U.S. Senate."

Democrats are using
the holdup to hammer Bunning and the Republican party. Congressional
Democrats, along with Vice President Joe Biden, Transportation Secretary Ray
LaHood, and White House spokesman Robert Gibbshave all condemned the holdup.

Even if Senate Democrats
get around Bunning and pass an extension this week, some recipients of
unemployment benefits could miss a check. Before last week, workforce
agencies in some states were already sending out letters notifying
recipients that they would be ineligible for any of the federally-funded
"tiers" of additional benefits provided by the stimulus bill. Eligibility
for those benefits ended on Feb. 28; the bill under consideration would push
the deadline back to April 5.

A Democratic aide said
Reid would move forward this week with a larger measure that would extend
unemployment and COBRA benefits for the rest of the year. Reid could file
for cloture tomorrow, a process that will eat up time but won't allow a
single senator to block progress of the widely-supported measure.

Judy Conti, a lobbyist for
the National Employment Law Project, said that the legislation would
retroactively pay UI recipients. But how long will it take? "If you're
already unemployed for more than six months," she said, "odds are you're
living at the margins already with no room for error."

In an off-camera
exchange on Monday, ABC News reported, "when
Senate producer Z. Byron Wolf spotted Bunning exiting his office, Bunning
said, 'I'm not talking to anybody.' When Wolf asked him to stay and talk to
our cameras, Bunning walked toward the elevator and shot the middle finger
over his head."

Later, Bunning
showed some anger when ABC News tried to ask him
about his objection. "Excuse me, this is a Senate-only elevator," he said.
"Excuse me!"

WATCH:

UPDATE 5:30 PM: Senate Democrats have
put a video of Bunning's first objection today on YouTube:

Click on the below Right Wing Individuals and
Groups. They have made statements and performed activities which by some standards
would indicate that they hate the United States
of America..

For information on all
individuals and organizations listed in this website, or the name of a
contact person in your area that can give you further information on the
Religious Freedom Coalition of the Southeast, or the First Amendment
Coalition, contact us at
rfcse@hotmail.comLet us hear from you!

You may call also call us at 000-000-0000 If you access our voice
mail, we will call you back collect if long distance.